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The United Nations (UN), via the International Maritime Organization (IMO), created World Maritime Day to celebrate the international maritime industry’s contribution towards the world’s economy, especially in shipping. The event’s date varies by year and country but it is always on the last week of September.

World Maritime Day focuses on the importance of shipping safety, maritime security and the marine environment and to emphasize a particular aspect of IMO's work. The day also features a special message from the IMO’s secretary-general, which is backed up by a discussion paper on the selected subject in more detail.

World Maritime Day is celebrated in many countries worldwide, including Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Many maritime organizations and unions hold special events and activities to celebrate this day. These activities and events range from symposiums to luncheons, as well as school lessons that focus on the day. Some classes may organize a trip to a maritime museum so students can understand the significance of the maritime industry in shaping world history and its importance in world trade.

World Maritime Day for 2014 is Thursday, 25 September.

The theme for this year's World Maritime Day "IMO conventions: effective implementation" was chosen in order to provide an opportunity to shine a spotlight on those IMO treaty instruments, which have not yet entered into force, as well as those for which ratification by more States and more effective implementation would yield significant benefits.

"At a time when the world is beset by conflict and crisis, it is easy to forget that, day in and day out, the international shipping industry works quietly and efficiently to keep the wheels of global trade in motion and ensure the timely delivery of the goods and commodities ... On World Maritime Day, let us recall the often unheralded but always vital contribution by international shipping to peoples and communities all over the world," United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement.